COMPARISON OF STATE CAPACITY OF IRAN AND SELECTED EAST ASIAN COUNTRIES IN POLICY-MAKING OF COVID-19

Document Type : Research Paper

Author

Department of Social Studies,- Farhangian University - Tehran - Iran

Abstract

While the coronavirus policies of selected East Asian states (South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan) have been hailed by the world as one of the most successful models in the fight against the coronavirus, there have been differing views on the Iranian government's actions. The purpose of this paper is to compare these two types of policymaking from the perspective of the concept of " state capacity". The main question of the research is what is the impact of state capacity in Iran and selected East Asian countries in coronavirus policy? After reviewing various approaches and theories in the form of theoretical literature, Lindvall and Theorell model were selected as a criterion for evaluating these policies. According to the findings, the low level of state capacity of the Iranian government compared to the selected states of East Asia in terms of the use of policy instruments (coercion, incentives and propaganda) as well as the use of resources (revenue, human capital and information), led to achieve different policy outcomes in coronavirus policy. The method of this research is descriptive, analytical and comparative and the method of collecting data and information is documentary and library.

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